


Winter

by Kibs



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Fluff, Link and Zelda talk about their feelings, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 14:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11853207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kibs/pseuds/Kibs
Summary: Link gets caught in a blizzard and an ambush, and remembers Zelda.





	Winter

Muffled footfalls touched on the silence of the vast snowfields. A lone horse galloped through the drifts, mane tangled with snow. Upon his back a rider hunched low against the wind, poorly dressed for the storm. He hadn’t expected a blizzard, but that was his own fault. He’d meant to find a nearby shrine, leaving the stable early when the sky was clear and the horizons wide. The blizzard had risen from the ground up, billowing from the mountains and meeting the sky to overtake the blue with gray, then a pitch white. 

He took in the reins just so, and let his mount come to a walk as he grasped for direction. The wind pushed his cloak over his shoulders and he shivered, the sweat on his back catching the cold. Nothing. With a sigh, adjusting the cloak over his mouth, he pushed on.  
Then, maybe a flicker of black from the corner of his eye. He turned over his shoulder, and his horse startled. A moblin crashed through the drifts ahead of them, and Link’s horse broke into a run, twisting away from the club strike. Link almost fell as they dodge, then steadied himself and reached for his bow. 

Another bokoblin, astride its own mount, caught up to them, aiming an arrow. It rushed past his head and vanished into the storm.  
A whole mob of them, steering their own horses, surrounded the adventurer. He knocked arrows and squinted through the flurries to take aim- as they came out of the storm like ghosts. Planting his feet in the stirrups, he downed one bokoblin, and its horse spooked and took off. Suddenly, a horse charged in front of them, and a flurry of arrows punctured the air. Link felt one graze and stick in his shield, and as he took aim in retaliation, his horse cried out and buckled. They toppled through the snowpack, and Link’s foot caught in the saddle as they crashed into the white. His vision jostled and sound rung loud in his ear as he struggled to right himself, pulling away from his downed steed. 

With a shout, he rolled to his knees, and knocked an arrow in time to catch a nearing bokoblin. His numb fingers ached and bled, and he shuffled through his quiver for a certain arrow. As a trio- maybe, hopefully, the last- approached, he lit an arrow and aimed it at their feet. He loosed it, and an explosion rung outward from his foes, melting the snow and scorching Link’s face. When he dropped his arm, the carnage was already buried by the blizzard. 

He exhaled and kicked his feet out from under himself to stand. At his first step, his leg cramped and he fell again. The shaft of an arrow protruded from his thigh- bleeding slowly through the snowpants. He grasped it below the feathers and hesitated. No. Think.  
He released it slowly and took a breath. He needed shelter before that. 

Slowly he trudged back to his horse. The silver and white mare was halfway buried, and he dusted off her face to say goodbye. He caught sight of the arrows in her neck guiltily. He’d taken her from her homes in the Hyrule fields, so far from that cold mountain, and failed to take care of her.  
From the saddlebags he retrieved his rations and weapons, and the half-frozen water flask. Then, with nothing else to be done, he let the storm overtake his steed, and she became a snowy hill as if that was where she’d come from in the first place. 

He began walking, counting his footsteps. The mob had to have come from somewhere- their hideaway must be have been close. He moved in a circle, rounding back to their battlefield, and walking each direction, trying not to lose his bearings. He felt blood leaking down his leg, freezing against his skin. His muscled ached and his eyes stung, but eventually caught sight of a stone shelter against the mountainside. He stumbled inside, pressing his back against the walls as he loosened the cloak around his neck. His numb fingers were slow and clumsy, but eventually he was able to start a fire. He slouched against it and caught his breath, warming his fingers over the meager warmth. There was no more firewood beyond the remnants in the firepit, so he would have to make it last. And count.  
He pulled the gloves off his hands and stretched out his leg beside the light to see. His pant was soaked red, but it still hurt- which was good.  
He tugged the arrow free, and it came out in a whole and a shout. He’d set an arrowhead in the flames, and as it glowed red, he took it by the shaft and lined it up with the wound. He rocked his head back, eyes shut, and pressed it to the cut with a flinch of his hand. The pain radiated, was it hot or freezing cold, he couldn’t tell. He pulled it away with a haggard shout, and tossed the arrow to the side. He exhaled a humid breath and shut his eyes- exhausting hitting his body like a gust of wind.  
The fire was just a single flame holding onto embers by then, and the blizzard outside was now grey instead of white- the sun had gone down. Link wrapped up his leg and bundled against a nook in the stone. 

He reached with a cloak to pull someone inside it, and caught himself with a start. The memory echoed as if Zelda had just walked outside into the storm and gone. They’d been caught in weather like that before, over one hundred years ago... 

~~  
Her face bright pink, snow trapped on her eyelashes like pollen. It wasn’t just the cold, but embarrassment as Link offered her the warmth under his cloak.  
The fire was dying, and though she acted like the cold wasn’t bothering her, hunched over the pulsing red coals with pale hands, Link knew she was freezing.  
She caught sight of his gesture, and her cheeks darkened. “It’s not proper,” she said impulsively.  
Link rolled his eyes. 

“What does that mean? You don’t think I’m proper?”  
He shrugged and shut his eyes, trying not to grin. 

“I see your smile, Link!”  
He shook his head and buried his lips in his scarf. 

The Princess sighed, frustrated. “I suppose you’re right. My father doesn’t agree in my ways either- it’s not fitting for a Princess to be running around the kingdom, digging up relics in a snowstorm…Getting caught in a snowstorm…” She rubbed her hands together. “I have tried. I continue to. But I feel that there is more I can be doing. I’m worried that…It won’t be enough. The powers I’m supposed to have...” She sighed, a hot cloud that drifted far. 

Link shifted, as if moving around the desire he felt then to share things with her. As it was not proper to hold each other close, it was not proper to confide in one another. Though Zelda had, so many times, and Link felt that he could as well, he refrained. 

He had refrained, until that night. 

“You never speak to me,” Zelda whispered, after a long silence.  
Link roused from his drowsiness at her voice. 

She pulled her knees close and tucked her hand under them. “Do you not…feel as though you can?”  
“It’s not proper,” he said. 

Zelda livened at his voice. “Oh! You have humor after all,” she laughed a bit, and Link felt warmer. “I suppose my father did not appoint you as my knight to be my friend, or confidant. If I have overshared, I apologize.” 

He shook his head. He chewed his lip, and sat up straighter. “Your powers will come,” he reassured her. “I’m not quiet because of you.” Link’s eyes fell on the Master Sword, sheathed beside him. He took it and set it across his legs. “This burden is mine to bear alone.”  
Zelda watched him, her eyes focused and endearing. “I see. I often feel the same.”

He shut his eyes. He knew that, which was why he felt so compelled then to share his own feelings. They were the same, perhaps, and he did not want Zelda to feel so alone. 

“We can bear them together,” she said slowly, then with a smile. Then, slowly, she walked over to him. He set the Master Sword down again, and opened his cloak up for her. She was freezing, and he gasped when she leaned into him. 

“Oh! I’m sorry!” She leaned away, but Link pulled the cloak shut and caught her. He shook his head.  
Zelda sat stiffly for a bit longer, then melted against him as their body heat mingled and warmed them up. They drifted off as the day’s travels caught up to them.  
~~

Link woke, his joints stiff and cold. He shook the frost off his cloak and verified that Zelda was not there beside him. He couldn’t remember much more- the moments of clarity came, and went. He could remember her face better than his own, but their time together was more of an emotion than tangible details.  
Light pooled through the entrance of the hideout, glaring off still white snow. Link wandered outside and peeked through the glaring sunlight. A calm snowfield, in every direction, dotted with whitecapped trees. Far off he could see a smokestack- the stable. Then a patch of snow shifted, and an azure fox unburied itself from its burrow. It yawned and stretched, and froze when it caught sight of Link. They regarded each other, and the fox eventually trotted away.  
Link bound his supplies on his back and began the trek back.


End file.
